If you are cooking this now, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. If you are marinating overnight, ignore this.

A day ahead, if possible, prepare the marinade. If not possible, do it 4 hours before you plan to eat. Put the achiote seed, coriander seed, peppercorns, cumin seeds, oregano, cinnamon, and sea salt in a spice grinder, mortar, or large Ziploc-type bag. Pulverize into a powder. If doing this in a baggie, close it, cover it with a towel, and bash with a rolling pin. Avoid breaking the bag, which will make you hate me.

Add the peppers. If you are using fresh pepper, it is up to you whether or not to seed and devein.These jalapeños were not hot, so I tossed them in whole. I was worried the spice grinder would choke. It didn’t.

Now add the garlic. This time spice grinder choked, but this was chopped enough for me.

Using a small spatula, carefully scrape the spice mixture from the grinder into a small bowl. Don’t cut your spatula to ribbons on the blades. Or your fingers.

Turning to the oranges, if they are not organic, please scrub them well before zesting the peel into the spice mixture.

I have terrible luck with that brand-name zester everyone raves about: the zest always gets stuck in those little teeth, and they are bitch to clean. Do your best. Then squeeze the orange juice over the spice mixture. Stir to blend. Notice how good it smells.

Rub this marinade all over the pork.

Now the recipe takes a little detour. Ideally, you’re tucking this in the fridge, covered with foil, for the next 24-48 hours. Then, 4 hours before you plan to eat, remove it from the fridge, preheat the oven to 325 F, and give it an hour to come to room temperature.

Detour concluded. We’re all on the same freeway again, taking the Banana Leaf exit.

If your banana leaves are stiff, wave them carefully over your oven burner to soften them. For this recipe, you likely only need 1 or 2. They may need a rinse in cool water. You might want to trim the scraggly bits, which is easily accomplished with scissors.

As the pork is sitting in marinade, this next step is a bit messy. Lay your banana leaf, shiny side down, into your cooking vessel. Now transfer your pork over with a large spoon, spatula, or, if you’re me, your clean cupped hands.

Now’s the time to tuck in any additions–your sliced onion or pepper, say.

Fold the leaves over loosely. I like to flip the roast over so the seam is down.

Pour a little olive oil in the bottom of the pan, just to keep everything from drying out.

Cover with a lid or make one with aluminum foil.

Cook for at least 2 hours before checking.

Don’t fret over wrecking your handiwork–banana leaves are friendly. You can nudge in one side and have a peek, then rearrange everything. The pork should be absolutely fork tender. You’ll probably need more time–30 minutes, maybe 45.  If the pan’s getting dry, add a little more oil. Dry pork is an awful thing.

When it’s ready, discard the banana leaf, which is sadly not edible.

Serve with black beans, sour cream, tortillas, avocados, slices of lime, shredded lettuce, and rice.

Notes:

This recipe is ideally made with a piece of bone-in, fatty shoulder pork.

The original recipe called for a teaspoon of ground clove in the marinade. I am not fond of clove and omitted it.  Feel free to add it in.